Rooted in Values: The Defining Thread of Dawson’s Throughline

This year, we chose the throughline “Rooted in Values” to develop the experiences that bring our Core Values to life. The statements that describe our Core Values depict the strength and stability felt when we’re all connected, anchoring our learners to the meaning behind everything we do and how we show up. 

Belonging, Engagement, Advocacy, and Resilience are values we’ve all seen proudly on display across our campus during the first month of school, and our plan is to intentionally help our community recognize what these values look like during every next step of the learning journey. “Rooted in Values” taps into this school year’s universal theme, creating powerful threads that are relatable from child to adult. It’s how we can continue to tell the Dawson story in a way that evokes unity and understanding. 

The power of this throughline emerged for me during a recent parenting milestone. Three weeks ago, I set off on an 18-hour car ride to drop my daughter off for her freshman year of college. I was conflicted with the range of emotions that invaded my head and heart during that long trek. All the worries that accompany setting your child free into an adult world were competing inside my brain for top priority. 

As I said my tearful goodbye, there was only one hope in my heart: I hoped she would live the values that my husband and I had instilled over the years. If she would allow our family values to serve as the touchstones that guide her experiences, she would be successful. She will find her people by seeking connections and engagement through friends and professors who make her feel seen and valued. She will speak up in situations of unfairness and use her voice to create a community of belonging for herself and others. A strong set of values in advocacy and self-care will help her seek tutoring when academics get tough or talk to a counselor when stress becomes overwhelming. Her values of resilience and discernment will provide the groundwork for strong decision-making when encountering the risky behaviors that accompany college life. 

After 18 years of life lesson conversations, it came down to one simple wish: remain rooted in your values as you savor every aspect of college life.

I often reflect on the answers I receive during my admissions interviews with prospective families about success. Every parent is asked the question, “If your child is successful when they become an adult, what does that look like to you?” Happiness always ranks as the top answer, and when I push on what happiness looks like, I get responses like independence, freedom, strong relationships, and a life that has balance and meaning. Parents always take a beat and think deeply when asked the next question, “What does your child need to experience at Dawson to prepare them for that type of success?” 

When I was young, the success goalposts were more clearly defined, as college was an essential component of the pathway. College admittance relied heavily on standardized test scores, so the purpose of schools was to prepare you for those tests. 

This year, however, 1,843 US colleges made SAT and ACT submissions optional in their college admissions process. The pathway to success has shifted, and finding happiness seems to have become more challenging for our youth. The relationship between what success looks like now and how to get our graduates on that path is one we grapple with daily as educators, especially in a world and workforce where rapid change is a constant. Yet, in spite of the rapid change we’re regularly navigating, stability can exist.

Our throughlines provide the firm foundation of continuity, predictability, and support students need. Constantly revisiting this message helps them find deeper meaning in how they extrapolate the information overload at their fingertips and push toward deeper convictions.

The best schools create a convergence of academic skills, world readiness competencies, and deep-rooted values. The best way to prepare our students for world readiness is to layer academic skills, competencies (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, etc.), and values into a shared experience where each of these components is inextricably related. You can learn how to convert fractions and be a good human who cares for others all in the same lesson. You can practice the art of building consensus while also being mindful that all voices are heard and valued. 

The work we do as a school to deliver a values-driven education does not live in isolation but rather is threaded throughout the design of every lesson plan and every interaction we steward across campus. Helping our students to make connections with their value systems does not take away from learning about mitosis or the quadratic formula, but it gives them purpose when they apply these important academic skills. 

An education without purpose boils down to the memorization of random facts, skills, and concepts, all disconnected from any larger sense of meaning or pursuit of individual achievements and ambitions. Our students deserve a purposeful education where they can see the relationship between what they learn and who they are. 

When our throughlines become part of a student’s identity, we know we’ve delivered on our promise of an impactful independent school education. Recently, I received an email from a parent who shared a story about how last year’s “Level Up” throughline elevated her daughter’s mindset:

As parents, there is so much we need to teach our children to prepare them for adulthood. Yet I hope you find peace in the fact that you have made steps in the right direction by selecting an education that understands how success requires a foundation “Rooted in Values.” Through the school and family partnership, your child will be poised and ready for future success. You won’t always be there to point them in the right direction, so allow the values they are learning today to resonate far into the future, from the second they step out of your car during college drop-off and beyond. 

By Roxanne Stansbury
Head of School